COCHIN MALABAR ESTATE Vs. EXECUTIVE OFFICER VARANTHARAPPILLY PANCHAYAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this batch of petitions challenge is made to demands by various Panchayats for tax assessed under S.66A of the Kerala Panchayats Act, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'). It is agreed that in all these cases demands were made without service of any order of assessment prior thereto It is also agreed that capital value of land which has to be determined for the purpose of S.66A of the Act had not been determined in these cases with reference to material put to the petitioners and after giving an opportunity to the petitioners to substantiate their cases in regard to such capital value Possibly in these petitions this court may be able to grant relief on this ground itself But we may mention here that m most of these petitions there is an attack the constitutional validity of S.66A of the Act and also to the Kerala Panchayats (Levy and Collection of Land Cess) Rules, 1971 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules).

(2.) The Kerala Panchayats Act, 1960 had, by S.66 (2), provided for a levy of cess on all lands in the Panchayat area, other than exempted lands at the rate of two paise per annum for every five cents of land or part thereof. This provision was repealed and a new S.66A was introduced providing for the levy of land cess on every land in a panchayat area, other than exempted lands at the rate of one sixteenth per centum of the capital value of the land. The cess so levied was payable by the owner of the land. This was subsequently amended folder indicate that the levy was of an annual nature. S.66A was deemed to have come into force in the Travancore - Cochin area on 5th August, 1951 and in the Malabar area on 1st April 1958. This section reads:

(3.) A brief reference may be made to the scheme of the rules. R.2 defines certain terms including the term "Assessment Officer". That term meant such officer as was appointed by the Government for determining the cess payable in respect of any land under S.66A of the Act. R.3 and 4 are the pertinent rules which provided for assessment and the manner of determining capital value for such assessment. It may be profitable to extract these rules here: